"Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but, disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort."
Marshall Mcluhan
So why are these billionaires dumping their shares of U.S. companies?
After all, the stock market is still in the midst of its historic rally. Real estate prices have finally leveled off, and for the first time in five years are actually rising in many locations. And the unemployment rate seems to have stabilized.
It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%.
But what do you expect in a country where gratuitous violence, blood and mayhem make up the vast majority of the entertainment.
Where a wholly unrealistic portrayal of the Wild West™ on TV and in the movies is still very popular and there are those who not only believe it to be real but also think it should be design for how this country should be living. Albeit updated a bit.
She did not die of cancer or a heart attack or a stroke. She did not have diabetes or any other disease. Some high BP but that is all. And she did not die of natural causes.
NO she died from the most likely cause these days after entering a hospital. She died of a hospital acquired infection.
We have increased our population to the level of 7 billion and beyond. We live at high densities in many cities. We have penetrated, and continue to penetrate, the last great forests and other wild ecosystems of the planet. We cut our way through the Congo, through the Amazon, through Borneo. We shake the trees, figuratively and literally, and things fall out. We kill and butcher and eat many of the wild animals found there. We settle in those places, bringing in our domesticated animals.
My current vehicle has hit the end of the line. The clutch and throw out bearing expired in a puff of foul smoke. This is the 5th time I have had this happen. It's a 1998 Subaru and needs other work as well. It served me will taking me up and down I95 and around central Fl. but it's time to let it go. The replacement will be of a similar sort. Newer but not new. I do not require a brand new car as I do not drive that much, but do need to on occasion.
Cruisers, aircraft carriers and minesweepers from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war.
Western leaders are convinced that Iran will retaliate to any attack by attempting to mine or blockade the shipping lane through which passes around 18 million barrels of oil every day, approximately 35 per cent of the world’s oil traded by sea.
According to FSI's 2011 Annual Report (page 38, .pdf) Agricultural giant Cargill, British Petroleum (BP), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (heavily invested in both Cargill and big-agri giant Monsanto), the Ford Foundation, Google, Goldman Sachs, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and many other corporate-financier, Fortune 500 special interests.
The shaman, let’s say, wants the people to plant more crops and work harder in the fields to make the crops grow. So the shaman does a fertility dance to petition the fertility goddess for her favors. The people believe the fertility dance will make the crops grow. They get excited, and start planting with more alacrity. They also work extra hard and put in longer hours in the fields because they now believe the fertility goddess is on their side. And the crops grow! The dance worked; the prayers have been answered.
Well bust my buttons. Who could have POSSIBLY have guessed.
A study released last week by Stanford scientists, which claims organic foods are no more healthy than non-organic foods, was funded by corporate agriculture and biotechnology giants, according to a new report by the Cornucopia Institute.
This post, however, focuses on private rather than public debt. Prepare to be offended … and lock up your sacred cows before we find and slaughter them.
The National Bureau of Economic Research has published a new paper analyzing 138 years of economic history in 14 advanced economies, which proves that high levels of private debt cause severe recessions.
Both the Democratic and Republican national conventions have attempted this year to show total unity to the viewing public. More so than in the past with the Democrats going to great length in casting as diverse a lineup as they could, with out importing some alien beings from Alpha Century.
Although the Selective Service Exam radically reduced the chances of college men, especially those with the test-taking skills of most Stanford students, to be conscripted into the Vietnam War, it was no guarantee of long-lasting deferment. There were other, surer, escapes from the Vietnam nightmare. One of the very best was the ministry. In 1966, young men flooded into divinity schools, embarking on careers to be ministers, priests, and rabbis. The Mormons had an even better deal than most religions, because The Church of Latter-Day Saints required each a
Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan is barnstorming the country, promising to repeal every provision of the Affordable Care Act if the Romney-Ryan ticket is elected. But a letter he wrote to the Obama administration may undermine this message.
I would guess that most here watched at least a bit of the two political circuses that have been put on for our amusement. Of the two I think the democratic circus was much better produced with tighter production values, a more creative script and better jokes. The also did a better job of casting, though in some cases seemed a bit cast against type.
I watched Bill Moyers segment with Jonathan Haidt - a social psychologist - on the extreme positions that so many have these days both in our culture and it's manifestations in politics.
